TY - JOUR
T1 - Medical Marijuana and Crime
T2 - Substance Use and Criminal Behaviors in a Sample of Arrestees
AU - Cheon, Hyunjung
AU - Decker, Scott
AU - Katz, Charles
N1 - Funding Information:
University. His primary research focus has been on criminal justice policy, gangs, violence, and the offender’s perspective. He is the author of 17 books, over 150 articles and chapters, and more than one hundred presentations in the US, Canada, Europe and Central America. His research has been funded by the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Funding Information:
The data used in this study were collected through the Arizona Arrestee Reporting Information Network (AARIN; see Katz, Fox, & White, 2011), which was established in January 2007 and funded by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors. The AARIN project was modeled after the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) project, which was sponsored by the National Institute of Justice. The ADAM project ran in 35 sites across the United States to monitor drug use trends and other risky behaviors among recently booked arrestees (National Institute of Justice, 2013). The AARIN project adopted the methodology used by ADAM and focused on collecting data to assess the impact of substance use and drug-related activities of arrestees in Maricopa County, Arizona. It provides information on drug trends, criminal involvement, victimization, and other characteristics of interest among arrestees, in addition to the urine specimens.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017, © The Author(s) 2017.
PY - 2018/4/1
Y1 - 2018/4/1
N2 - After decades of prohibition, laws allowing marijuana use for medical and, in some cases, recreational purposes have been enacted across the country. To date, however, little is known about medical marijuana use, particularly regarding its relationship to criminal offending and use by nonauthorized persons. The current study bridges this gap by examining offending patterns in a sample of recent arrestees in Maricopa County, Arizona, identified and interviewed through the Arizona Arrestee Reporting Information Network (AARIN) project. Findings suggest that medical users had a higher probability for committing Driving Under the Influendce (DUI) and drug selling/making than nonusers, and diverted medical marijuana users had a higher probability for involvement in property crime, violent crime, DUI, and drug selling/making than nonusers. The results have important implications for developing marijuana decriminalization policies, criminal justice, and criminological theory. Directions for future research are discussed.
AB - After decades of prohibition, laws allowing marijuana use for medical and, in some cases, recreational purposes have been enacted across the country. To date, however, little is known about medical marijuana use, particularly regarding its relationship to criminal offending and use by nonauthorized persons. The current study bridges this gap by examining offending patterns in a sample of recent arrestees in Maricopa County, Arizona, identified and interviewed through the Arizona Arrestee Reporting Information Network (AARIN) project. Findings suggest that medical users had a higher probability for committing Driving Under the Influendce (DUI) and drug selling/making than nonusers, and diverted medical marijuana users had a higher probability for involvement in property crime, violent crime, DUI, and drug selling/making than nonusers. The results have important implications for developing marijuana decriminalization policies, criminal justice, and criminological theory. Directions for future research are discussed.
KW - criminal involvement
KW - medical marijuana
KW - substance use
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U2 - 10.1177/0022042617743775
DO - 10.1177/0022042617743775
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85042794395
SN - 0022-0426
VL - 48
SP - 182
EP - 204
JO - Journal of Drug Issues
JF - Journal of Drug Issues
IS - 2
ER -